Can I get the "Checksum" value that Dynamics CRM On-Premise generates in any other way than the native export tool?

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Posted on by nwest88

I am in need of a way to more dynamically import/update CRM records than with the standard export functionality can do. Right now a user is limited to only being able to do mass updates of records they can fit into an advanced find view and then exporting. This is because the system has a "Checksum" value that is added to that export to insure that when the data is re-imported, it only updates if the checksum value remained the same. To my understanding the "Checksum" value is only updated when the record is updated.

Theoretically, if I can get the "Checksum" value through sql, for on-premise of course, then I could do import/updates through the front end UI a lot more effectively because I could do much more complex queries for data than with advanced find.

Does anyone know if the "Checksum" value can be queried through SQL or any other means than the native export tool?

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David Jennaway 14,065 on at

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I'm not certain, but the most likely candidate is the VersionNumber column in the underlying table. This is a timestamp type, so is automatically updated when the record is changed. The VersionNumber is available programmatically via the CRM SDK, though is not available in Advanced Find

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Matt Dearing on at

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Unfortunately it doesn't appear to be stored in the database or even calculated there with a sproc. Looking at Microsoft.CRM.dll there is a class and method (CheckSumGenerator.GenerateChecksum) that appears to be used by the import and export functionality. This method takes in an array of data, concatenates it into a string applying some formatting, then generates the checksum on the string using the SHA512CryptoServiceProvider.

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Andreas Cieslik 9,267 on at

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So you are saying that you want to export the data via SQL export?

If you create you own import/export tool anyways, why don't you create your own checksum or use the modifiedon date for your import business logic?

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nwest88 21 on at

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My thought process here is so that a tool can be developed that's an add-on to excel. The user would login to there instance and be able to update records in the system by simply clicking an update button in excel. In order to do this, the add-on could use the check-sum in the logic to validate if the data had changed. I'm sure there is a way better way to do this, but Dynamics needs something like this for the 2013/15 instances.

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